Bureau of Census website hacked on Census Night
Privacy Commissioner opens investigation into cyber attack
The government’s historic transition to digital census has become an embarrassing epic failure as the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) website crashed Tuesday.
The online form for the 2016 Census of Population and Housing could not be accessed through the ABS website hours before the Aug. 9 Census Night passed. On Twitter, the ABC said the Census website has been attacked four times before the government decided to close the system for security purposes.
We apologise for the inconvenience. The 2016 online Census form was subject to four Denial of Service attacks of varying nature & severity.
— Census Australia (@ABSCensus) August 9, 2016
According to ABC, at least two million census forms have been submitted online before the Census website crashed. However, the government expects nine million households to participate in the 2016 Census of Population and Housing.
“The first three attacks caused minor disruption but more than 2 million Census forms were successfully submitted and safely stored.
“After the fourth attack, just after 7:30 p.m., the ABS took the precaution of closing down the system to ensure the integrity of the data.”
Despite the hacking incident, the ABC assured citizens of the privacy of the collected data through the 2016 Census of Population and Housing. For his part, Privacy Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim has launched the investigation on the cyber attack.
“I am commencing an investigation of the ABS in regards to these cyber attacks, under the Australian Privacy Act 1988. My first priority is to ensure that no personal information has been compromised as a result of these attacks,” Pilgrim said in a statement.
“My office will continue to work with the ABS to ensure they are taking appropriate steps to protect the personal information collected through the Census.”
No fines due to #CensusFail
Since the outage barred millions to submit their census forms, the government has decided to withdraw the fines earlier set for late registrants. While citizens have until Sept. 23 to submit the online census form, they will be fined $180 per day beyond the Aug. 9 deadline.
Fines will not be imposed for completing the Census after Census night.
— Census Australia (@ABSCensus) August 9, 2016
ABS would remind Australians that they have plenty of time to complete the Census, to well into September.
— Census Australia (@ABSCensus) August 9, 2016
As of posting, the ABS website is still inaccessible and the resumption of the availability of the Census online form is still unclear. Disappointed citizens bashed the ABC, causing #CensusFail to trend on social media.
We’re working to restore the service. We’ll keep you updated.
— Census Australia (@ABSCensus) August 9, 2016
Those who cannot access the Internet can opt to fill out a paper version of the census form. However, the traditional method will take longer than the online route, which is completed on an average time of 27 minutes.
The last Census of Population and Housing was conducted in 2011 and it cost $440 million. A big chunk of the expense, $159 million, went to the salaries of the 43,000 census collectors. The government’s move to automate the census form collection is supposed to save $100 million in taxpayers’ money.
